I’m a tireless advocate of the idea that your annual plan cannot be a 100-slide deck. Nobody will remember. You must get it down to one page. (See our annual marketing plan example.) But if you’ve ever tried to produce a plan that short you’ll know, short is difficult. It isn’t easy to compress all you know into 300 words. It’s harder, in fact, than writing 3,000.

And there’s a lot that can go wrong in that planning process. Because to arrive at a universally agreeable annual marketing plan on a page, you have to start with A LOT of information. And you’ll have to have difficult conversations with every other department, know their plans, and tell one cohesive, measurable story that satisfies all. 

Today I share five things I see go wrong in this process, and what you can do to get back on track.

1. Sorry, your plan won’t be ready by Q1

You may start planning in Q4, but it won’t be ready on time because you likely won’t have everything you need, and you’ll be waiting on others—finance for a budget, sales for their segments. Everyone will be busy running end-of-year plays and if your fiscal year matches the calendar year, there are holidays. 

The answer to this one is pretty simple: Give yourself some grace and think of Q1 as Q5. If you really can’t get financial numbers, take last year’s goals and add 10-15%. It’s safe to assume goals will rise—they never seem to drop.

2. The business doesn’t provide clear goals on time for planning

When you think about it, an annual marketing plan on a page is really just a very brief explanation of how marketing will contribute to the company’s topline goals. It’s a workback. Take a goal, break it into initiatives, then actions, then measures and budget. Simple. 

But what about when the business doesn’t provide you with clear goals? What about when they’re struggling to prioritize 6-10? Or that conversation keeps getting delayed?

You can’t just make up your annual plan and proceed; for marketing to explain how it’s going to contribute, you must know what it’s contributing to. If you build a whole plan and that changes, you’re back to not having a plan. And you can’t just run marketing without direction—that’s how your team commits random acts.

So you must force a conversation around priorities. Guide your leadership in understanding that without committing to 3-5 goals, they are committing to not having marketing. If needed, rank them in order of what you can meaningfully contribute to and suggest the goals for approval.

Also use an upfront contract in writing to secure their agreement that everyone’s going to measure marketing by its contributions to those goals as defined. Clarify that the goals can change, because markets change, but let them know that means disrupting marketing’s long-term plans.

3. You will be tempted to let it sprawl onto two pages

Every marketer during planning season has a little gremlin on their shoulder, shrieking “Add more. Add additional context! Sales won’t understand. Add graphics! We must show off the design team’s stunning work.” 

Well, you’re going to have to knock that little guy off because the one-page rule exists for a reason. It’s all anyone in your organization will be able to remember when things get busy. And they always get busy.

The dozens of CMOs we interviewed all attest to this. Many have produced 100-slide decks rich with competitive intel and insight and learned the hard way that you cannot align others around what amounts to an autobiography. It must be brief. Your stakeholders must understand deeply, not just listen politely.

Nevertheless, most marketers only go halfway. They leave it at 100 sides or skip the hard conversations needed to get agreement. One fix is to give it a try and also learn the hard way. Another, cheaper fix is to stick to the template and allow it to force you and others to prioritize ruthlessly. And understand the plan well enough you can explain it simply.

4. The CFO didn’t give you a budget

This is actually great. Not receiving a budget is actually an opportunity to lead—you don’t want to be constrained to what your CFO thinks anyway. Go to them with a budget for what you need to hit the business goals. As a starting place, assume your budget is the same as last year. 

• Unless you have exact numbers, overestimate your goals by 10-15%.
• Assign your budget by business objective or marketing approach.
• Designate overflow channels you can dump unused budget into if needed.

Going to them with a budget shows that you’re proactive, and it allows you to frame the conversation around the type of marketing you know works, not just the MQL treadmill. It may also help you reset the conversation. In my experience, if you aren’t getting the budget you need, it’s probably because you haven’t convinced the CEO that money will deliver value. And it’s not their job to figure that out for you. It’s your responsibility.

If you’re looking for a smarter way to track and manage your budget, consider Uptempo. Full disclosure, they’re a partner of ours, but it’s because their planning software works.

5. People aren’t following your lead on planning

While it sounds exciting to do all the deciding, you’ll often end up being more of a facilitator. You’ll hold many listening sessions with your campaign managers, VPs of sales, and product managers to gut-check things. Does this assumption sound right? Is this idea off base? You’re their confidant and may end up doing a lot of nodding and then not adhering. (It’s rare for others to understand marketing, but that doesn’t mean their requests aren’t valuable information.) 

You’ll then synthesize your findings into politically sound decisions. While you can run ideas by your team, don’t overshare, or you’ll burden them with worry. Invite their genius and frontline perspective, but keep any politicking to yourself. 

On the other side of the roadblocks? A road to revenue

If you sense a theme in the above fixes, it’s probably this: Annual planning is your opportunity to seize the initiative. Rather than accepting your fate, you can preempt everyone else with goals, budgets and ideas and create an environment where your team can actually be successful.

Also, by keeping it on one page, you help them actually act on it and realize that success.

Curious about planning? Download our free workbook and template. And if you need help, give us a call.